Technology Lab —

Windows 7 Home Premium to get Family Pack deal

Although Microsoft has not confirmed its existence, it appears there will be a …

One of the recently leaked builds of Windows 7 has more juice in it than just a new default wallpaper. In the Windows 7 Home Premium edition—as noticed by Kristan Kenney—, the Microsoft Software License Terms has an additional clause that mentions a Family Pack licensing plan that would cover up to three computers in a household. This is no accident: other editions like Professional and Ultimate do not contain the Family Pack wording.

Here's the whole clause:

b. Family Pack. If you are a "Qualified Family Pack User," you may install one copy of the software marked as "Family Pack" on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there. Those computers are the "licensed computers" and are subject to these license terms. If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Family Pack User, visit go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.

Currently the link noted in the clause redirects to Microsoft.com. Nevertheless, the fact that it's in the license terms is promising in the sense that this won't simply be a limited-time offer. Microsoft offered a Family Pack deal for Windows Vista, but only for six months from January 30, 2007 until June 30 of that same year. Pricing has yet to be revealed, but ZDNet speculates that the Family Pack will cost $189.

The possibility of a Family Pack for Windows 7 is just another piece of the puzzle for Microsoft's aggressive Windows 7 push. A Microsoft spokesperson told Ars she had "nothing to share right now" with regard to a possible Family Pack for Windows 7 but then added, "We continue to work with partners and expect other great deals in the future."

Although the Windows 7 prices announced last week were only slightly cheaper than Vista's pricing, Microsoft made sure to follow-up with pre-order discounts that also started last week. The company still has more pricing details up its sleeve, though, including the Windows Anytime Upgrade packs for Windows 7 that were also detailed last week, and a few other promotions we've heard whispers of.

Updated: Articles was corrected to attribute Kristan Kenney, who first noticed the new clause.

24 Reader Comments

Certainly a good deal if its true. Haven't done the beta,or am a reviewer. Then I haven't seen any where lay out the differences between the several versions of Microsofts software. With different features . Some you might want,or would not need . Would like to know about especially the 64-bit versions. Since that would be what is necesary to run an optimized machine.

What would be interesting to know would be, if someone bought the family pack and had both 32 and 64 bit machines, could the appropriate version of the os be installed on the appropriate machines or would you be limited to the exact same version on all machines.

Maybe Good Deal compared to Vista licenses. Can I legally transfer from one computer to another (or for example if I'm upgrading motherboard) Can I like tranfer it like OSX : one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/MacOSX.htm And compared to Linux, the Family Pack is not a very good deal at all.

I can't believe that it's taken them this long to do this. I would imagine it's a cost saver also. 2 less set's of packaging. Although I'm hoping that they don't redesign the family pack. Office for the Mac has been doing this for a while.

Originally posted by dargon:What would be interesting to know would be, if someone bought the family pack and had both 32 and 64 bit machines, could the appropriate version of the os be installed on the appropriate machines or would you be limited to the exact same version on all machines.

My guess is that the bit-ness of the machines won't make any difference. If they follow Vista they'll put both 32 bit and 64 bit media in the box. Restricting the installs of the second and third license to machines of the same bit-ness would be as arbitrary as saying all machines had to have the same sized disk drive. Or in other words, they'd be going out of their way to be assholes if they enforced this restriction.

I dont' think the licensing system even knows about word width. I had a 32-bit install of Vista Ultimate. I reinstalled with 64-bit from the other DVD in the pack and there were no complaints from the authorization system.

And I just bought two of the 7 HP upgrade licenses (for wife's and my laptops, both Vista HP32); not even thinking about upgrading my daughters desktop yet (XP Pro), my wife's older laptop (XP Pro), my son's desktop (Vista HP64) or laptop (XP Pro) or my wife's and my desktops (both Vista U64). That also won't cover the soon to be Media PC (either Vista U32 or HP32 because that's what we have (though in both cases, for the first time, they'd be "double used", naughty naughty!), or 7 HP32 if I wait a bit before I build it....)

Yeah, a 3 pack would really help there ::

Bigger problem is that MS has "stranded me".... because I really don't need to go to 7U. At best, I could go with 7 Pro64 for the two desktops currently running Vista U64.... but you can't upgrade from Vista U64 to 7 HP64 or 7 Pro64. If the cost were the same for a U-U upgrade as a HP-HP upgrade, no problem, but I'll be darned if I'm paying $400 to upgrade those two machines when I won't use any feature beyond Pro level, and only the XP mode in Pro level (and then rarely...).... U-HP should be possible as an UPGRADE, not another "wipe your HDD and lose everything" path...) Which means I'll probably end up having to pirate, eventually, the two 7 U64 licenses because MS stranded me.... and considering what Vista U cost, they should have just thrown in the upgrade to 7 U for free, after the epic fail of added value....

I have a TechNet subscription for my 3 desktops and 4 laptops. Purchasing licenses for Windows/Office individually would be too cost prohibitive. I'm not entirely sure that home use is acceptable within the license agreement, but it's the only way that MS is going to get money from me regardless. Otherwise I would either have to pirate their software or switch to Linux.

Originally posted by hugodrax:Kiss Steve Jobs ring. If it was not for Steve Jobs you would not have this family pack option.

That is ridiculous.

Microsoft had already been doing family pack pricing for some of their other products , one care and office home and student and possibly others.

They know that people have more than 1 computer now at home , I think its great they are doing it. I doubt on a profit level it even matters much at all, but at least it will build good word of mouth from that 5% of users who upgrades their own machines. 95% of computers are bought new with the license for whatever is on there and never upgraded.

So is this family pack considered retail, upgrade, OEM? Do I need previous retail licenses of Vista or XP to use this? Or will it standalone? Can I move the licenses to other computers? The article is lacking.

And still no way to upgrade from XP to win7 without a new harddrive or wipe the old one. So this is a "no-go" for me; and I suspect a "no-go" for most businesses who are still running XP. So that means I won't be going to win7 until I am forced to buy a new computer and most businesses won't be going to win7 until they buy new computers to replace old ones...and train everyone on the new interfaces and what they won't be able to do with win7 they they know backward and forward with XP.

Originally posted by earl grey:And still no way to upgrade from XP to win7 without a new harddrive or wipe the old one. So this is a "no-go" for me; and I suspect a "no-go" for most businesses who are still running XP. So that means I won't be going to win7 until I am forced to buy a new computer and most businesses won't be going to win7 until they buy new computers to replace old ones...and train everyone on the new interfaces and what they won't be able to do with win7 they they know backward and forward with XP.

Why would we want to buy win7 again?

Yeah, I know the article is about "family pack"...get over it.

Why dont you? Your the one going off topic. This isn't a general "bitch about M$" thread...

ALSO - There are very good reason NOT to upgrade from XP to 7 and most businesses would not be adivsed by MS or their tech company or deptartment to do a straight upgade anyway - so now you even show yourself to not know what the hell your talking about.

Have to love a person who cant get over it themselves that orders everyone else to when HE clearly is the originator of a need to get over something to begin with.